


Reintroductions

by Page_of_Cups



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Dad!asra, Family Fluff, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-10-09 18:51:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17412305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Page_of_Cups/pseuds/Page_of_Cups
Summary: Muriel hadn't seen Asra's daughter since she was a baby. Asra has to make some awkward reintroductions.





	Reintroductions

Muriel was never fond of children. 

In all fairness, Muriel wasn’t fond of most people and held no particular contempt for children. He did, however, know first-hand the cruelty they were capable of, and it was always little ones who reacted the worst when he had to travel to the city. While most adults would at least make obviously strained efforts to not look at him, children openly stared and pointed when he walked through the streets. Oftentimes, this unwanted attention came while the children were clutching their mothers’ skirts and hiding behind their legs. Although Muriel  _ did _ want to come off as intimidating and unapproachable to ensure he had as few social interactions as possible, he had hoped outright terrifying people with his presence alone was something he could have left in the Coliseum.   

Muriel and Asra shared their childhoods hiding from other children, but Asra, ever the optimist, decided to try his hand in parenthood anyway. It would be dishonest for Muriel to say he wasn’t disappointed when Asra told him he and his former “apprentice” were expecting a few years ago, but he respected Asra’s decision regardless. Although their relationship was still far from the warm kinship he shared with Asra, the tension between Muriel and the apprentice had at least eased since the re-killing of Lucio.

Muriel had met Asra’s daughter a few times when she was still a baby. He remembered how awful those visits were when Asra was too overwhelmed with being a new parent to leave the shop. Despite his best efforts to tolerate it, her frequent, unexpecting shrieking - a trait Muriel was sure she didn’t inherit from her dad -  was too much for him to bear. Each outburst was a fresh hell for Muriel. Loud noises didn’t sit well with him before his tenure at the Coliseum, but screaming and crying brought up a slew of horrifying memories ever since. It seemed that as soon as someone coddled and calmed the little one, she would find a new thing to fuss about. Asra was disappointed but understanding and stopped pressuring Muriel to visit. Fortunately, Asra and the girl’s mother took turns taking care of the baby and the shop on the weekends, so Asra was still able to venture into the forest frequently enough. 

It had been over a year and a half since Muriel had seen her, and after much convincing, he begrudgingly accepted Asra’s request to re-introduce them. Muriel was so caught up in his worrying and what-ifs that he didn’t even notice them enter the clearing until Asra called out to him. He was carrying his daughter in both of his arms, and her face was buried in his neck.  _ Great _ , Muriel thought to himself.  _ She’s already terrified _ . He wished he had Innana there for comfort, but he couldn’t imagine any way a small child meeting a full-grown wolf could go well. 

Muriel made no effort to meet them. Instead, he watched as Asra seemingly effortlessly carried his child across the clearing. Muriel and Asra exchanged greetings, but the girl in Asra’s arms didn’t even turn her head. Muriel glanced at her uncertainly. 

“It will be okay, Muriel. I promise,” Asra said and gave him a reassuring smile. He turned to his still unresponsive daughter. “Come on, sweetheart, it’s time to wake up.”

She whined a little when Asra set her down between them but didn’t try to hide behind his legs at least. She yawned and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Asra patted her shirt pocket to check the pouch of myrrh that he had sewn in was still there.

“This is Muriel. You met him when you were a baby. He’s been my friend for a very, very long time. Say ‘hi’!”

Asra waved to remind her what to do.

“Hi,” she said with another yawn. She wasn’t afraid of him at all, Muriel realized. Just tired. If her ability to take a nap wherever and whenever weren’t sufficient to prove Asra’s paternity, she was the spitting image of him. Her loose white curls were tied back and off of her familiarly round cheeks. She craned her neck back and examined him with big, purple eyes - Asra’s eyes- and smiled.

“Do you eat a lot of vegetables?” She asked. “Daddy said that if I wanted to be as big as Uncle Ilya that I had to eat a lot of vegetables and not just sweets. Sometimes he lets me have them anyway if I promise to not tell Mom.”

Asra covered his mouth to stifle a laugh. Muriel felt a twinge of jealously hearing Julian being spoken of so fondly, but couldn’t help but be amused at the image of a child of Asra’s being classified as anything remotely close to “big”.  


“Uh...yes,” Muriel said, figuring that was the correct answer. She made a small, defeated noise.

“I don’t really like vegetables. Carrots are okay, but I only like them in cake.”

Inanna ruffled the bushes nearby and sniffed the air. 

“Asra’s here,” she said wordlessly. “And someone who smells like Asra.” 

She emerged from the vegetation and trotted toward them. Muriel bristled and was grateful that she wasn’t returning dripping with blood from a successful hunt. Asra’s daughter tugged on her dad’s sleeve.

“Dad! Puppy!” She said before letting go and reaching for Inanna.

“Ask first,” Asra reminded her sternly. She turned to Muriel.

“Can I pet your puppy?” She asked.

Before Muriel could answer, Inanna nuzzled the girl and accidentally knocked her off of her feet.

Asra’s daughter laughed and petted the wolf as she brushed up against her. Muriel wanted to tell Innana to stop but knew that she wouldn’t listen.

“Dad, what’s her name?”

“Ask Muriel,” Asra prompted. She looked up at Muriel without repeating her question.

“... Inanna.”

She leaned over to hug Inanna.

“Inanna is a nice puppy.” 

“She is,” Asra said.

Inanna sat and allowed herself to be stroked and petted. Despite her age and inexperience with wolves, Asra’s daughter was gentle and seemed to know all the right places to scratch.

“She’s just like her dad,” Inanna told Muriel.   


“I know,” Muriel answered.

Muriel and Asra chatted while they watched closely, though admittedly Muriel was much more nervous about the whole thing. After a while, Inanna stood up, gave the girl one last gentle nuzzle, and went inside. Asra’s daughter stood up, and the back of her clothing was covered in dirt in leaves. She didn’t seem to notice and asked a dozen questions about Innana while describing their interaction - which they had all just seen - animatedly and in meandering detail until out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a group of chickens.

“Can I go pet the chickens?” She asked Muriel. He considered it a moment. There weren’t any roosters nearby, and the worst she could get from the hens -if they didn’t just immediately run away- were a few angry pecks. Nothing that would be too severe or that Asra wouldn’t be able to fix with minimal effort. Muriel breathed deeply and finally relaxed a little. It felt as he was releasing a breath he didn’t know he was holding. 

“Sure.”

She got up and started slowly approaching the chickens, pulling out clumps of grass to feed them as she went. 

Muriel was still not fond of children, but maybe this one was okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Writing Muriel is hard, lol. ԅ[ •́ ﹏ •̀ ]و  
> Feedback, constructive criticism and the like is always welcome!  
> Tumblr for anon hate or requests or whatever https://pageofcupsreversed.tumblr.com/


End file.
